Manx Care 'committed to restoring' theatre lists

Manx Care said the planned reductions in elective surgery aimed to save £220,000

The Isle of Man's healthcare provider has committed to restoring theatre lists "as soon as possible" following a reduction in elective surgery to reduce an estimated £16.8m overspend.

Fewer ear, nose and throat, gynaecology and general surgery operations will take place in the last six months of the financial year in a bid to save about £220,000.

Raising concerns about the move, a group of Manx medics previously said the cuts were short-sighted and failed to consider the “long-term implications” for patients.

Manx Care said the action was "not ideal" but modelling had calculated previous money spent on reducing waiting lists would "not be wasted".

The body's £18.3m restoration and recovery programme began in 2022 to reduce waiting times for elective orthopaedic, general surgery and ophthalmology procedures.

In a statement, Manx Care said the planned cancellations for 2024 and 2025 would not see patients waiting longer than a "sustainable waiting list size" of 18 weeks, which had been the objective of the previous recovery scheme.

Recruitment

Manx Care said to balance its £346m budget it was focussing on areas where spends could be reduced immediately such as bank and agency expenditure, freezing of vacancies, purchasing of goods and services and off island commissioning.

The reduction of elective theatre lists would cut a monthly spend of £84,000 a month on bank theatre and anaesthetic staff, which had been seen in the first four months of the financial year due to several vacancies, it said.

Staff had been recruited to join the teams at Noble's Hospital in the coming months and the need to maintain the theatre list reductions would be regularly assessed, the healthcare provider confirmed.

After a review had identified "opportunities to improve theatre utilisation", surgeons had also been tasked with improving productivity levels, it said.

The body was "committed to minimising the impact on patients, restoring the theatre lists as soon as possible and meeting the requirement of our financial recovery plan", it added.